"William Forster (mathematician) William Forster (fl. 1632–1673) was an English mathematician, known for publishing a book describing inventions of William Oughtred. Little is known of Forster's life. He was a student of William Oughtred; while staying with Oughtred at Albury, Surrey, during the long vacation of 1630, the latter showed him two instruments: a circular slide rule, and a ""horizontal instrument"" for delineating sundials upon any kind of plane and for demonstrating astronomical principles. Oughtred had written instructions for these in Latin. Forster persuaded him to make them public, and was ultimately allowed to translate and publish Oughtred's treatise as"
"the modern slide rule. Like his contemporary at Cambridge, Isaac Newton, Oughtred taught his ideas privately to his students. Also like Newton, he became involved in a vitriolic controversy over priority, with his one-time student Richard Delamain and the prior claims of Wingate. Oughtred's ideas were only made public in publications of his student William Forster in 1632 and 1653. In 1677, Henry Coggeshall created a two-foot folding rule for timber measure, called the Coggeshall slide rule, expanding the slide rule's use beyond mathematical inquiry. In 1722, Warner introduced the two- and three-decade scales, and in 1755 Everard included an"
"Versorium The versorium (Latin ""turn around"") was the first electroscope, the first instrument that could detect the presence of static electric charge. It was invented in 1600 by William Gilbert, physician to Queen Elizabeth I. The versorium is a needle constructed out of metal which is allowed to pivot freely on a pedestal. It is similar to a compass needle, but unmagnetized. The needle is attracted to charged bodies brought near it, turning towards the charged object. Since it is able to distinguish between charged and non-charged objects, it is an example of a class of devices known as electroscopes."
"was concerned). In 1926, Philips invented a technique of adding yet another grid to combat the secondary emission that the tetrode suffered from. All the ingredients for the pentagrid were now in place. The development of the pentagrid or heptode (seven-electrode) valve was a novel development in the mixer story. The idea was to produce a single valve that not only mixed the oscillator signal and the received signal and produced its own oscillator signal at the same time but, importantly, did the mixing and the oscillating in different parts of the same valve. The invention of the device at"
"line of sines and tangents are placed on one side of the scale and the corresponding artificial or logarithmic ones were on the other side. This calculating aid was a predecessor of the slide rule. It was William Oughtred (1575–1660) who first used two such scales sliding by one another to perform direct multiplication and division, and thus is credited as the inventor of the slide rule in 1622. Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) invented the mechanical calculator in 1642. The introduction of his Pascaline in 1645 launched the development of mechanical calculators first in Europe and then all over the world."
"and his ""Opuscula Mathematica"", published posthumously in 1676. He invented a universal equinoctial ring dial of two rings.These three books are important in the development of basic and elementary mathematics. The first edition of the Clavis Mathematicae was published in 1631 that consisted of 20 chapters and 88 pages that included algebra and several fundamentals of mathematics. Some changes were then added by Oughtred to the first edition, and a second and third edition were made in 1647 and 1648, having no preface and reducing the book by one chapter. This book opens up with a discussion of the Hindu-Arabic"
"1671. It was also at this time that clock cases began to be made of wood and clock faces to utilize enamel as well as hand-painted ceramics. In 1670, William Clement created the anchor escapement, an improvement over Huygens' crown escapement. Clement also introduced the pendulum suspension spring in 1671. The concentric minute hand was added to the clock by Daniel Quare, a London clockmaker and others, and the second hand was first introduced. In 1675, Huygens and Robert Hooke invented the spiral balance spring, or the hairspring, designed to control the oscillating speed of the balance wheel. This crucial"
"known as a state cipher, the stream cipher was invented in 1917 by Gilbert Sandford Vernam at Bell Labs. 1917 Marshmallow creme 1918 Superheterodyne receiver 1918 French dip sandwich 1918 Torque wrench 1918 Crystal oscillator 1918 Grocery bag 1918 Hydraulic brake 1919 Blender 1919 Silica gel 1919 Toaster (pop-up) 1920 Eskimo Pie 1920 Jungle gym 1921 Polygraph Not to be confused with an earlier and different invention with the same name, a polygraph, popularly referred to as a lie detector, is an instrument that measures and records several physiological indices such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while"
"was first described by Vitruvius around 27 and 23 BC, although the actual inventor may have been Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC) during the First Punic War. Hero of Alexandria (10 AD - 70 AD) describes a similar device in chapter 34 of his ""Dioptra"". The machine was also used in the time of Roman Emperor Commodus (c. 192 AD), although after this point in time there seems to be a gap between its use in Roman times and that of the 15th century in Western Europe. Some researchers have speculated that the device might"
"all metal-strung instruments of the era, a very light touch with the plucking hand was required, quite different from the sharper attack used on the lute. The orpharion was invented in England in the second half of the 16th century; in sources of English music it is often mentioned as an alternative to the lute. According to Stow's ""Annals"" (1631), John Rose of Bridewell invented the instrument in 1581. A Rose orpharion in Helmingham Hall was allegedly given as a gift to Queen Elizabeth, and may well be that first example. It has six courses and the bridge and nut"
"(1621) deduced that planets orbited the Sun in ellipses. In 1687 Isaac Newton explained the cause of elliptic motion in his theory of gravitation. Clock makers George Graham and Thomas Tompion built the first modern orrery around 1704 in England. Graham gave the first model, or its design, to the celebrated instrument maker John Rowley of London to make a copy for Prince Eugene of Savoy. Rowley was commissioned to make another copy for his patron Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery, from which the device took its name in English. This model was presented to Charles' son John, later"
"led to renewed interest in self-winding mechanisms, and all four types listed above were used: Invented by John Harwood, a watch repairer from Bolton, England, who took out a UK patent with his financial backer, Harry Cutts, on 7 July 1923, and obtained a corresponding Swiss patent on 16 October 1923. The Harwood system used a pivoting weight which swung as the wearer moved, winding the mainspring. The ratchet mechanism wound the mainspring only when moving in one direction. The weight did not rotate a full 360°; spring bumpers limited its swing to about 180°, to encourage a back and"
"device in New York City (1813). Removing some concealing wooden strips, Fulton found a catgut belt drive went through a wall to an attic. In the attic, a man was turning a crank to power the device. In 1827, Sir William Congreve, 2nd Baronet devised a machine running on capillary action that would disobey the principle that water seeks its own level, so to produce a continuous ascent and overflow. The device had an inclined plane over pulleys. At the top and bottom, there travelled an endless band of sponge, a bed and, over this, again an endless band of"
"Thomas Coughtrie Thomas Robb Coughtrie (25 November 1917 – 27 August 2008) was credited by ""The Times"" as the inventor of the Mole wrench. However, this conflicts with other references that show the invention of the Vise Grip locking pliers in Nebraska with an initial patent in 1921 and fuller developments patented in 1924. It could be surmised that M. K. Mole and Son produced their own version (the Mole Grip) based on the existing American Vise Grip. The likeness between the two is clear even from sketch drawings. He was born in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, Scotland. After his education at"
"John Lethbridge John Lethbridge (1675–1759) invented the first underwater diving machine in 1715. He lived in the county of Devon in South West England and reportedly had 17 children. John Lethbridge was a wool merchant based in Newton Abbot who invented a diving machine in 1715 that was used to salvage valuables from wrecks. This machine was an airtight oak barrel that allowed “the diver” to submerge long enough to retrieve underwater material. In Lethbridge’s words: It is made of wainscot perfectly round, about 6 feet in length, about 2 feet and a half diameter at the head, and about"
"and their order by connecting these with arrows. Flowcharts are used in analyzing, designing, documenting or managing a process or program in various fields. The second structured method for documenting process flow, the ""flow process chart"", was invented by Frank Gilbreth to members of ASME in 1921 as the presentation ""Process Charts—First Steps in Finding the One Best Way"". 1921 Adhesive bandage Popularly known by the brand name Band-Aid, an adhesive bandage is a self-sticking taped and small dressing used for injuries not serious enough to require a full-size bandage. This easy-to-use dressing with adhesive tape was invented by Earle"
"""automatic"", wristwatch was the invention of a British watch repairer named John Harwood in 1923. This type of watch winds itself without requiring any special action by the wearer. It uses an eccentric weight, called a winding rotor, which rotates with the movement of the wearer's wrist. The back-and-forth motion of the winding rotor couples to a ratchet to wind the mainspring automatically. Self-winding watches usually can also be wound manually to keep them running when not worn or if the wearer's wrist motions are inadequate to keep the watch wound. In April 2014 the Swatch Group launched the ""sistem51"""
"as a marine steam engine, a refrigerator, and calculating machines. His slide ruler invention (U. S. patent #7961) was filed with the United States Patent Office on 4 March 1851. Nystrom is most noted for his proposal to switch from base 10 to base 16 as defined in his 1862 publication titled ""Project of a New System of Arithmetic, Weight, Measure and Coins, Proposed to be Called the Tonal System, with Sixteen to the Base"". In 1859, Nystrom proposed a hexadecimal (base 16) system of notation, arithmetic, and metrology called the Tonal System. In addition to new weights and measures,"
"had to be varnished to prevent water vapor from getting in, because changes in humidity also affected the length. The first device to compensate for this error was the mercury pendulum, invented by George Graham in 1721. The liquid metal mercury expands in volume with temperature. In a mercury pendulum, the pendulum's weight (bob) is a container of mercury. With a temperature rise, the pendulum rod gets longer, but the mercury also expands and its surface level rises slightly in the container, moving its centre of mass closer to the pendulum pivot. By using the correct height of mercury in"
"patents for diverse devices, mainly military. These included Glasses of Archimedes which could set ships afire at sea and an early form of machine gun ""in which a number of musket barrels are fastened together in such a manner as to allow one man to take the place of a hundred musketeers in battle. However, there is no evidence that he actually produced any of these devices. In 1627, however, he seems to have been home for a short time, as, in that year, he appears in the entirely new character of the holder of a patent for the construction"
"for the commercial part, but his ingenuity found a vent in making improvements on the existing instruments, and in devising philosophical toys. He also invented instruments of his own. One of the most famous was the Wheatstone concertina. It was a six sided instrument with 64 keys. These keys provided for simple chromatic fingerings. The English Concertina became increasingly famous throughout his lifetime, however it didn't reach its peak of popularity until the early 20th century. In 1827, Wheatstone introduced his 'kaleidophone', a device for rendering the vibrations of a sounding body apparent to the eye. It consists of a"
"Mozart, Hasse, Beethoven, Naumann, and other masters wrote."" A catalogue of the British Museum notes volume 1 of a title, ""Miscellaneous works"", 1755 at Dublin, attributed to ""Poekrich (Richard) ""esqr."""" Richard Pockrich (inventor) Richard Pockrich, Poekrich (c.1695 – 1759), or Puckeridge, was an Irish musician, and was the inventor of the glass harp (also known as the ""Angelic organ"") in 1741. He was born at his family's estate Derrylusk at Aghnamallagh, County Monaghan, Ireland. His father, also named Richard (c.1666–1719), was the member of Parliament for Monaghan and had commanded troops in the Williamite battles. The paternal descent was of"
"Kaleidophone The kaleidophone is a ""philosophical toy"" that produces moving optical figures. There are several different versions of the kaleidophone, but in all cases at least one slender rod is fixed at one end and has a shiny bead fixed to the other end of the rod. As the rod vibrates the spot is seen to describe Lissajous curves in the air, like a spark whirled about in the darkness. The kaleidophone was invented by Charles Wheatstone, who published an account of the device in 1827. The name ""kaleidophone"" was derived from the kaleidoscope, an optical toy invented in 1817"
"inventions. It was eventually printed in 1663 and included a device described as his ""Water-commanding Engine"". Constructed from the barrel of a cannon, it was an obvious prototype design for what would later become the steam engine, and clearly anticipated the power and applications of that machine. In 1663 Samuel Sorbière visited Edward's Vauxhall workshop and saw and described the ""hydraulic machine which the Marquis of Worcester has invented."" It was designed for purposes of irrigation, and would ""raise to the height of forty feet, by the strength of one man and in the space of one minute of time,"
"""The Circles of Proportion and the Horizontall Instrvment. Both invented, and the vses of both written in Latine by Mr. W[illiam] O[ughtred]. Translated into English and set forth for the publique benefit by William Forster"" (1632, another edition in 1639). It was dedicated to Sir Kenelm Digby. The book includes Forster's address: ""at the Red bull over against St. Clements churchyard with out Temple bar""; it is thought he taught mathematics there. Forster's preface suggested that another (unnamed) person had claimed invention of the instruments; this led to a dispute involving him, Oughtred and Richard Delamaine, a student of Oughtred."
"was invented in 1904 by the English physicist John Ambrose Fleming. He developed a device he called an ""oscillation valve"" (because it passes current in only one direction). The heated filament, or cathode, was capable of thermionic emission of electrons that would flow to the ""plate"" (or ""anode"") when it was at a higher voltage. Electrons, however, could not pass in the reverse direction because the plate was not heated and thus not capable of thermionic emission of electrons. Later known as the Fleming valve, it could be used as a rectifier of alternating current and as a radio wave"
"later becomes the basis of Richard Arkwright's water frame. 1741: John Wyatt, mechanic and inventor, designs and constructs a cart-weighing machine, later referred to as a compound lever weighing machine; the design works by way of levers that hold in place a platform, no matter where the weight is placed the load is transferred to a central lever. Weights attached to that lever then help in obtaining a reading of accurate weight. The simplicity, efficiency and accuracy of the weighing machine prove extremely popular across England, subsequently weighing errors are reduced to approximately one pound per ton, this remains a"
"became famous as designers and builders of textile machinery and steam engines that rivalled the Soho Works in Birmingham operated by steam age pioneers James Watt and Matthew Boulton. By 1800, Routledge had become Manager at the Round Foundry. Somehow, along the way, he learned the value of logarithms and thereby had the means of developing a method of measuring ""all kinds of metals and other bodies"" needed for engineering purposes. Using the principles of Edmund Gunter's (1581–1626) logarithmic scales and William Oughtred's (1574–1660) sliding rule, Routledge combined a 12-inch brass slide containing the logarithmic scales with an ordinary 2-foot"
"to be locked on the axle and impart extra power for bad roads or steep ascents."" 1785: William Withering publishes ""An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses"", pioneering its use as a cardiac drug, Digitalis. 1785: James Watt and William Murdoch invent the oscillating cylinder and double action engine. Around this time James Watt creates a governor and throttle valve for automatically regulating the supply of steam to an engine although no patents for this are taken out by Watt. 1788: Boulton and Watt build the rotative steam engine also known as a piston engine, an"
"up to the saw by means of a pair of rollers. This predates William Bell's straw cutting machine. 1821: Emanuel Heaton, gun finisher, takes out a patent for a watertight pan for gun locks. 1823: Francis Deakin improves a method of stringing the piano by employing the screw and nut as opposed to the previously used wooden peg, thus allowing a greater tension and strength of wire. 1824: American inventor William Church patents a printing machine in his Birmingham works, which positions the paper sheets more accurately. He is a prolific inventor, taking out numerous patents for methods of button"
"mathematics, with a greater dependence on symbols; drawing on François Viète (though not explicitly), Oughtred also innovated freely in symbols, introducing not only the multiplication sign as now used universally, but also the proportion sign (double colon ::). The book became popular around 15 years later, as mathematics took a greater role in higher education. Wallis wrote the introduction to his 1652 edition, and used it to publicise his skill as cryptographer; in another, Oughtred promoted the talents of Wren. Other works were a treatise on navigation entitled ""Circles of Proportion"", in 1632, and a book on trigonometry and dialling,"
"and exposed a catgut cord that led to the upper floor. Upstairs he found an old man who was turning a hand-crank with one hand and eating bread with the other. Spectators realized they had been duped and destroyed the machine; Redheffer fled the city. Redheffer appears to have constructed another machine in 1816, which he stated his intention to demonstrate to a group of men including the mayor and chief justice of Philadelphia. However, despite several meetings, Redheffer refused to demonstrate the machine to them. On July 11, 1820, the U.S. Patent Office granted a patent to Charles Redheffer"
"have created the atmospheric electricity observing apparatus that Ronalds invented and developed at the observatory in the 1840s and also to have installed the first automatic recording meteorological instruments there (see for example, Howarth, p158). Charles Wheatstone Sir Charles Wheatstone FRS (6 February 1802 – 19 October 1875), was an English scientist and inventor of many scientific breakthroughs of the Victorian era, including the English concertina, the stereoscope (a device for displaying three-dimensional images), and the Playfair cipher (an encryption technique). However, Wheatstone is best known for his contributions in the development of the Wheatstone bridge, originally invented by Samuel"